A known opening and closing body, for example, a sliding door, being provided at an opening portion of a vehicle body includes a window portion that performs an opening operation. For example, an opening and closing control device is described in JP2000-240352A (hereinafter, referred to as Patent reference 1). The opening and closing control device stops the movement of the sliding door before a fully-open position of the sliding door in a case where the window portion (a side window) provided at the sliding door is in an open state.
That is, in case of opening the sliding door while the window portion is open, an extraneous material (for example, a hand or a head of a passenger) extending toward outside of a vehicle via the window portion may be caught, or caught between a window frame of the window portion and a peripheral rim portion of a door opening portion, that is, a vehicle body. The opening and closing control device disclosed in Patent reference 1 stops the movement of the sliding door moving in the opening direction at a predetermined position that is preset close to the fully-open position. By retaining the sliding door at the position, the opening and closing control device may inhibit the extraneous material from being caught.
However, according to the opening and closing control device disclosed in Patent reference 1, the window portion that is in an open state is desired to be closed, or the sliding door is desired to be released from a retention control by the operation of a switch being provided close to the sliding door. Accordingly, the convenience of the sliding door for a user is reduced.
A need thus exists for an opening and closing body control device for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.